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Leo Fender
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Richard and Nancy had the pleasure to meet and get to talk with Leo Fender.
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Leo Fender
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Richard and Nancy had the pleasure to meet and get to talk with Leo Fender.
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Clarence Leonidas Fender
was born on August 10, 1909 on his parent's ranch in their barn.
At thirteen, Fender took up electronics as a hobby. . Leo visited Santa
Maria in 1922 and saw a homemade radio his uncle had put on display in
front of the shop. The loud music from that speaker made a lasting
impression on the lad from Fullerton.
In 1932 he became aquainted with an orchestra
leader sponsoring dances in Hollywood. (When asked in the 1980s, Leo had
long forgotten the man's name.) He contracted Fender to build the first of
several public address systems he assembled in the 1930s. With six
hundred dollars that he borrowed, Leo returned to Fullerton and set up a
full-scale radio repair shop.
The Fender Radio Service led Leo into a life of
guitars and amplifiers. Leo saw his opportunity to build a better guitar
starting where Electro String, Vivi-Tone, and other manufacturers left
off. Leo Fender invented an improved electric guitar and capitalized on a
turning point in music history, the decline of the Big Band Era at the
beginning of the post-World War II economic expansion.
In the mid 1940s he established the K&F
company with "Doc" Kauffman, who had helped design some of
Rickenbacker Electro's electric guitars. K&F produced chiefly electric
steel guitars and amplifiers, and lasted until 1946, when Leo formed The
Fender Electric Instrument Company in nearby Fullerton, continuing the
K&F lines.
George Fullerton joined Fender in 1948. The two
men designed the solid electric "Broadcaster." It was quickly
changed to "Telecaster," when Gretsch pointed out their prior
use. Some rare models known as "No-Casters" have no name at all
on the headstock.
After more guitar innovations, Leo Fender became
ill and the company was sold to CBS in 1965 for $13 million. Leo's health
improved and he rejoined CBS/Fender briefly before resigning in 1970. He
went on to make instruments for Music Men and G&L.
Even in old age after suffering several small
strokes and progressive degeneration from Parkinsons disease, Leo Fender
was dedicated to the point of obsession. He continued working everyday he
was able, sometimes seven days a week. Once asked in the 1980s why he did
not retire and enjoy the fruits of his success, he replied, I owe it to
musicians to make better instruments. Leo Fender personified the American
spirit of invention. He went to work the day before he died, Thursday
March 21, 1991. Leo Fender's work embellished the world with the sounds of
music. He left many friends, and he left the world a much happier place.
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